Many households have multiple television and multimedia devices including TVs, video cassette recorders (VCRs), digital versatile disc (DVD) players, stereos, and the like (“controllable devices”). Alice is a homeowner who likes stereo music in her living room and in her bedroom while reading. She also likes various television programs while relaxing and when she does chores in specific rooms such as the kitchen and utility room.
The various TV sets and video players around Alice's house are beginning to get a little out of hand. The remote controllers (“remotes”) for these various controllable devices only work well with the one device or brand of device that they were created to control. Although Alice has five video and stereo components in her main living room entertainment center, these five components still require four remote control units. Alice finds herself inadvertently carrying remote controllers from some of the rooms into the kitchen when she wants a snack and getting the remotes mixed up with other remotes that are native to the kitchen. All nine of the remote controllers she has stationed around her house look the same because they have similar shapes and colors.
Sometimes a remote controller that Alice has unconsciously carried to a different room does not work at all with any of the components in that room, but sometimes the transported remote works for some functions but not for others. Alice sometimes grabs the wrong remote controller during an exciting part of a show and finds that the volume controls do not work or the “Begin Recording” key does not function—she has picked up the wrong remote!